In the news this morning: a UN General Assembly committee has agreed a resolution put forward by a Norwegian-led coalition to protect women's rights activists working around the world.
That's the good news.
The bad-but-sadly-predictable news is that the resolution was opposed by all the usual forces of reaction and religious stupidity, including the Vatican, which, working in alliance with the regimes of Russia, China, Iran and other Islamic states - not to mention some particularly unpleasant African governments - sought to weaken the resolution by refusing to endorse the idea that all forms of violence against women's rights activists were completely unacceptable, whatever laws, customs, traditions, or beliefs might be used to justify such.
This led to prolonged negotiations over the wording of the document and, in the end, concessions were made; something described by the Icelandic ambassador, Greta Gunnarsdottir, as a low point for the UN rights committee who could have and should have remained resolute about the wording of the resolution.
Still, it's a small victory of sorts. Although, of course, the real work begins when it comes to enforcing the resolution and ensuring no more health workers, for example, are murdered for trying to immunize children or teach young women about the use of contraception.
